Books to Inspire: A Box Can Be Many Things
“This box is not junk!” A brother and sister tell their mother as they retrieve a discarded cardboard box. This children’s book follows the journey of the box. First it is a cave and the brother is a bear. Flip the box and it’s a car and the sister is a car driver. Make holes and it’s a house. Create more holes and it’s a cage and they become birds. Then the leftover box bits become a hat. This book is the tale of a cardboard box as a prop for imaginative play. We recommend using books like this as a provocation for younger children.
The fascination of the fun to be had with a cardboard box is well understood. Cardboard is durable, has form and is pliable but most importantly, use your imagination and it can become many things! Let the children’s ideas take hold, and support them to brainstorm what kinds of things they could create from a cardboard box. Now add the magic of Makedo cardboard construction tools and the possibilities are increased exponentially! With the Makedo saw, scru-driver, perforator and scrus, children can fold, cut and connect layers of cardboard with secure and movable parts. The house in a child’s imagination can become a double-storey house, a city ... or another world.
Cover art reproduced courtesy of © Scholastic Books.
